The service industry above designated scale in Tai'an, East China's Shandong province maintained rapid development in the first three months of this year, local media reported.

The city's 285 service enterprises above designated scale generated 4.59 billion yuan ($715.2 million) in revenue, up 25.2 percent year-on-year, and had 260 million yuan in operating profit, up 124.7 percent.

Small and medium-sized companies played a key role in promoting the city's service sector during this period.

The city's small-sized enterprises achieved an operating income of 1.55 billion yuan, up 48.3 percent year-on-year, while its medium-sized companies generated an operating income of 1.3 billion yuan, up 16.8 percent year-on-year.

The total operating income of small and medium-sized enterprises accounted for 33.8 percent of the city's service industry.

From January to March, the operating income of the information transmission, software, and information technology service industries in the city reached 1.66 billion yuan, accounting for 36.2 percent of the city's service industry above designated scale.

The main contributor to service industry was Shandong Taiying Technology Co, which is a large domestic BPO outsourcing service provider. It provides service solutions like online customer service, artificial intelligence, crowdsourcing, and incubation.

The company contributed 51.6 percent to the city's information transmission, software, and information technology service industries' growth.

To boost the city's service industry development, the Tai'an government will focus on the modern service, modern logistics, and healthcare industries in its future plan, as well as introduce a batch of high-tech enterprises. More efforts will be made to promote the upgrading of the service industry and extend the value chain of the industry.